how did you get a first degree?

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DONT miss lectures, even boring ones. The temptation to read it off the slides or someone else's notes can be huge, particularly if its a 9am lecture on a Thursday morning, but it is not insourmountable. If you are studying something you like doing naturally, you will enjoy the studying more and will ultimately start to find yourself looking at books outside lectures and thinking of questions that might not strictly be withing your coursework. Studying smart is also important, its better to have a 45 hour week(including lectures obviously) reading one quality book rather than a 60 hour week reading a dozen, all of which say the same thing but explain it poorly(thus causing unwanted hair loss and stress). Try being involved in the class, ask questions which come to you(including the wierd and crazy ones), and be proactive rather than reactive.

Reply 21

the_alba

ish90an

I barely ever went to lecures as an undergraduate - most of them simply weren't necessary.

Reply 22

hobnob

the_alba

I barely ever went to lecures as an undergraduate - most of them simply weren't necessary.

That partly depends on your subject, though, doesn't it? I agree that when you're doing English most lectures aren't exactly vital, but for other subjects you might miss quite a lot if you didn't attend your key lectures.

Reply 23

the_alba

hobnob

True.

Reply 24

Ronnie01

hobnob

I'd back that up. Thats a very subject-dependant thing.

I can't imagine missing very many lectures on my course and still being able to keep up with the pace, even when reading around the subject.

Reply 25

ancientone

Read, read, read but...be selective about what you read. You don't have to spend all your time working, but you need to make sure that when you're working it's relevant. Too many people learn huge tracts of irrelevant stuff. The point of the reading is to broaden your knowledge, so you can illustrate with relevant examples what you're arguing. Make time for breaks and recharging your batteries - it's really no good ending the year as a nervous wreck through not making time for friends and passtimes.

Reply 26

WoWZa

Work hard basically. My two main tips are: Concentrate on the assessed elements of the course and consult your lecturers about improving your work, asking for direction or for help.

The thing is is that I would have been happy with a 2.1 and that was my original aim.

As for attending lectures, our attendance was monitored, and I think things like this are looked at when considering borderline cases. I was actually 0.9 % from a 1st but they moved it to a 1st anyway. My attendance was pretty good, and it even included coming in to a morning lecture every other week having like 4 or 5 hours sleep from going out the last night. w00t.

Reply 27

jjb2thez

I got a first- my biggest piece of advice is to work very hard. But be smart. Work harder on the essays that are worth more and if that means getting slightly less on an essay that is worth less then so be it. Think about it, if a piece of work is worth 25% and another is worth 75% of a module. every mark in the 75% is worth three times that of the 25%. so if you get 80% in the 25% essay and 60% in the 75% essay you end up with 65% if its the other way round you end up with 75%. A lot of people make this mistake.

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 28

LavenderBlueSky88

To be honest I never aimed for a first. I was a solid 2.1 student throughout my first and second year. I got a couple of low firsts in my third year but with an average of 66 for my second I didn't really think I'd scrape a first. The only reason I managed to get one was I got 93 (I think) in one of my final oral exams, complete fluke and I really thought I'd done terribly! Just try your best. You never know :smile: